File # G2024-00887 / R240460005

Details:

On Thursday, February 15, 2024, at approximately 12:30 p.m., Region 3 Gang Task Force Officers, along with the Southwest Cities S.W.A.T. Team, executed a search warrant in the 900 block of Battersea Road in the City of Hemet, for a felonious weapons investigation. During the warrant service, several occupants were detained without incident. A search of the property resulted in the discovery of a possible Butane Honey Oil (BHO) laboratory. Since the BHO laboratory appeared to be functioning, the Hemet Fire Department Hazardous Material Team and the Riverside County Department of Health Hazmat Team responded to the scene.

Based on their assessment, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Enforcement Team (RSO-MET) was contacted and requested to respond. RSO-MET assisted in the dismantling of the BHO laboratory and the removal of hazardous materials. After the property was deemed safe, evidence of narcotic and weapon sales was discovered in addition to the functioning BHO laboratory. Several subjects were placed under arrest for various narcotic and weapons charges and were later transported to a Riverside County jail.

During this operation, a small portion of Battersea Road was closed for serval hours.

The Hemet/San Jacinto Valley (Region 3) Gang Task Force is one of five teams comprising the Riverside County Regional Gang Task Force. It is staffed by members from the Hemet Police Department, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, and California Highway Patrol. Collaboratively, these law enforcement agencies combat criminal street gangs.

For media inquiries regarding this incident, please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump told thousands of members of the National Rifle Association that “no one will lay a finger on your firearms” if he returns to the White House, and bragged that during his time as president he “did nothing” to curb guns.

“During my four years nothing happened. And there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield,” he said as he addressed the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Friday evening.

Casting himself as ”the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House,” Trump pledged to continue to protect gun owners’ rights, even as the country grapples with a crisis of gun violence and mass shootings that have left more than 3,000 dead since 2006.

“Your Second Amendment will always be safe with me as your president,” he said.

Fresh off another dominant win in the Nevada caucuses Thursday night, Trump used the NRA forum to highlight his support of gun rights, a major priority for GOP voters. The issue is also a major motivator for Democrats as well as younger voters who grew up participating in active shooter drills and have witnessed a spate of school shootings in recent years.

Next week will mark the sixth anniversary of one of those shootings, the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.

Trump grappled with Parkland and other mass shootings as president, and at times pledged to strengthen gun laws, only to back away from those vows.

At a meeting with survivors and family members of the Parkland shooting in 2018, Trump promised to be “very strong on background checks” and later scolded a Republican senator for being “afraid of the NRA,” claiming he would stand up to the gun lobby and finally get results on quelling gun violence.

But he later retreated after a meeting with the group, expressing support for modest changes to the federal background check system and for arming teachers, while saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that there was “not much political support (to put it mildly).”

In December 2018, his administration banned bump stocks, the attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns and were used during the October 2017 shooting massacre in Las Vegas.

TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for Biden’s reelection campaign, accused Trump of placating the gun lobby Friday night and said “the American people are the ones who will suffer and die if he’s allowed anywhere near the Oval Office again.”

Trump’s appearance Friday in the critical swing state came as the Republican nominating contest that he has been dominating turns toward South Carolina. The state’s Feb. 24 primary may prove the last chance for Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining rival, to blunt the former president’s march toward the nomination. He and Haley will hold dueling campaign events there this weekend.

Trump hopes that a commanding win in the first-in-the-South race will deliver a devastating blow to Haley, who has yet to win a GOP contest. Haley, who was elected South Carolina’s governor twice, is betting that a home state advantage will lift her to a strong performance that could keep her in the race through Super Tuesday on March 5, when more than a dozen states will hold contests awarding a massive swath of the delegates needed to capture the GOP nomination.

“We’re leading everybody,” Trump said late Thursday following his Nevada victory. “Is there any way we can call the election for next Tuesday? That’s all I want.”

Trump had no competition in Nevada after Haley chose to skip Thursday’s caucuses to participate in an earlier primary that offered no delegates. But even without Trump on that ballot, Haley came in a distant second, swamped by GOP voters who picked a “none of these candidates” option.

Beyond Haley’s embarrassing Nevada defeat, Trump had an especially fortuitous week.

On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court seemed weary of attempts to kick him off the 2024 ballot under the Constitution’s Insurrection Clause. Both conservative and liberal justices voiced skepticism during a hearing over Colorado’s decision to disqualify Trump from its primary ballot because he refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election, which culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Hours later, special counsel Robert Hur released a long-awaited and bitingly critical report that concluded criminal charges against President Joe Biden were not warranted but said there was evidence Biden willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan. The report repeatedly pointed to Biden’s hazy memory in language that has raised new concerns about the president’s competency and age — a top concern for voters.

The findings will almost certainly blunt Biden’s ability to criticize Trump over his handling of classified documents. Trump was charged by a different special counsel, Jack Smith, for illegally hoarding classified records at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after he left office and then obstructing government efforts to get them back.

Despite abundant differences between the cases, Trump, who insists he did nothing wrong, on Friday cast the decision to charge him and not Biden as “nothing more than selective prosecution of Biden’s political opponent: me.”

“Trump was peanuts by comparison,” he claimed.

Trump’s speech to the NRA — his eighth, according to the group — comes as the former political juggernaut has played a diminished role this election cycle amid financial troubles, dwindling membership and infighting.

The group’s longtime CEO, Wayne LaPierre, resigned last month ahead of a trial in New York over allegations that he treated himself to millions of dollars in private jet flights, yacht trips, African safaris and other extravagant perks at the powerful gun rights organization’s expense.

The New York attorney general sued LaPierre and three co-defendants in 2020, claiming widespread misspending and self-enrichment. The organization filed for bankruptcy and sought to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, but a judge rejected the move.

___ Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont contributed to this report from Des Moines.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California law that bans people from carrying firearms in most public places will take effect on New Year’s Day, even as a court case continues to challenge the law.

A U.S. district judge issued a ruling Dec. 20 to block the law from taking effect, saying it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deprives people of their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones.

But on Saturday, a federal appeals court put a temporary hold on the district judge’s ruling. The appeals court decision allows the law to go into effect as the legal fight continues. Attorneys are scheduled to file arguments to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in January and in February.

The law, signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, prohibits people from carrying concealed guns in 26 places including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos.

The ban applies regardless of whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. One exception is for privately owned businesses that put up signs saying people are allowed to bring guns on their premises.

“This ruling will allow our common-sense gun laws to remain in place while we appeal the district court’s dangerous ruling,” Newsom posted to X, formerly Twitter, after the appeals court acted Saturday. “Californians overwhelmingly support efforts to ensure that places like hospitals, libraries and children’s playgrounds remain safe and free from guns.”

The California Rifle and Pistol Association sued to block the law. When U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney granted a preliminary injunction blocking the law, he wrote that the law was “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”

Carney wrote that gun rights groups are likely to succeed in proving it unconstitutional, meaning it would be permanently overturned.

The law overhauls California’s rules for concealed carry permits in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which set several states scrambling to react with their own laws. That decision said the constitutionality of gun laws must be assessed by whether they are “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Newsom has said he will keep pushing for stricter gun measures.

Newsom has positioned himself as a national leader on gun control while he is being increasingly eyed as a potential presidential candidate. He has called for and signed a variety of bills, including measures targeting untraceable “ghost guns,” the marketing of firearms to children and allowing people to bring lawsuits over gun violence. That legislation was patterned on a Texas anti-abortion law.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta appealed Carney’s decision. Bonta, a Democrat, said that if the district judge’s ruling to block the law were allowed to stand, it “would endanger communities by allowing guns in places where families and children gather.”

The California Pistol and Rifle Association’s president, Chuck Michel, said in a statement that under the law, gun permit holders “wouldn’t be able to drive across town without passing through a prohibited area and breaking the law.” Michel said criminals are deterred when law-abiding citizens can defend themselves.

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File # GE232920001

Details:

In October 2023, members of the Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force received an anonymous tip of a convicted felon manufacturing firearms. Task Force members assumed the investigation and were able to identify a prior convicted felon, Eric Ahrens, a 36-year-old resident of Desert Hot Springs, as the individual manufacturing firearms.

On November 3, 2023, Gang Task Force members located and arrested Ahrens in the 66500 Block of Ironwood Drive, Desert Hot Springs, and a search warrant was served at Ahrens’s residence. During the service of the search warrant, Gang Task Force members located several firearms, including a functional firearm and several completed lower receivers manufactured by a 3D printer. The 3D printer was also collected along with ammunition for these firearms.

Ahrens was ultimately transported and booked at the John Benoit Detention Center in Indio for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, ammunition, and manufacturing undetectable firearms.

The Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force is committed to creating safe and secure neighborhoods free of violent crime and gang activity. If you have any information about this crime, please contact Gang Task Force member Deputy Piscatella at (760)836-1600. If you have non-emergency information regarding gang activity, please use our online Gang Task Force Tip Form or call 951-922-7601. If you have information regarding criminal activity and wish to be anonymous, please call Valley Crimestoppers at (760)341-7867.

For media inquiries regarding this incident, please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # I232780061

Details:

On Friday, October 20th, 2023, the San Jacinto Station’s Special Enforcement Team served a narcotics-related search warrant in the 600 block of East Shaver Street in the city of San Jacinto. Deputies arrested a 17-year-old male juvenile, and Issac Corona, a 25-year-old resident of Indio, without incident. During a search of the property, deputies located the following items:

• Over $10,000.00 in cash
• 350 Xanax pills, 50 Oxycodone pills, 9 Adderall pills, and 1 bottle of Promethazine
• 29 grams of Psilocybin Mushrooms
• Four unregistered firearms

Additionally, items indicative of illicit narcotic sales were located. The 17-year-old male juvenile was later booked into the Juvenile Hall for various narcotic and weapon related offenses. Issac Corona was also booked into Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility for various narcotic and weapon related offenses.

This is an on-going investigation. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Deputy Pena at the San Jacinto Sheriff’s Station at (951) 654-2702.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # GE232280001

Details:

On Wednesday, August 16, 2023, at 7:00 a.m., the Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force, with the assistance of Riverside County Gang Task Force Region 2 and Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit, served a search warrant at a residence located in the 66000 block of Desert View Avenue in Desert Hot Springs. The search warrant stemmed from an ongoing investigation involving illegally possessed firearms. Gang Task Force Officers recovered six 9mm semi-auto handguns, eight .45 caliber semi-auto handguns, one .40 caliber semi-auto handgun, two .38 caliber semi-auto handguns, one 10mm semi-auto handgun, one .22 caliber semi-auto handgun, and one .556 semi-auto AR-15 rifle. They arrested Ramon Higuera Jr., 26, of Desert Hot Springs, for distributing firearms to a Felon, possessing an unregistered handgun, and transferring firearms without a Federal Firearms License (FFL). Higuera Jr. was booked at John Benoit Detention Center in Indio.

The Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force is committed to creating safe, secure neighborhoods free of violent crime and gang activity. If you have any information about this crime, please contact CVVCGTF member Officer Coddington at (760) 836-1600. If you have non-emergency information regarding gang activity, please use our online Gang Task Force Tip Form or call 951-922-7601.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # GE232210002

Details:

On Wednesday, August 9, 2023, at 2:45 P.M. the Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force, with the assistance of La Quinta Special Enforcement Team and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Aviation, served a search warrant at a residence located in the 52000 block of Calle Leandro in Coachella and at a residence in the 81000 block of Avenue 46 in Indio.  During the service of the search warrants Gang Task Force Officers located several illegally possessed firearms, including 7 rifles and 10 handguns. Gang Task Force Officers determined that one of the rifles was previously reported stolen. Additionally, Gang Task Force Officers located multiple gamecocks and items related to cockfighting such as gaffs, the razor-sharp steel blades used to attach to a gamecocks’ legs during a cockfight. Riverside County Animal Control subsequently responded and took possession of the gamecocks that were located during the search warrant.

Gang Task Force arrested convicted felon and documented criminal street gang member, Jorge Albert Casillas Flores, 30-year-old of Coachella for Felon in Possession of Firearms, Felon in Possession of Ammunition, Gang Member with a Firearm, Animal Cruelty, and Cockfighting. Also arrested was documented criminal street gang member, Antonio De Jesus Casillas Flores, 27-year-old of Indio for Providing Firearms to a Convicted Felon, Gang Member with a Firearm, Possession of a Stolen Firearm, Animal Cruelty, and Cockfighting. Both subjects were booked at John Benoit Detention Center in Indio.

The Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force is committed to creating safe and secure neighborhoods free of violent crime and gang activity. If you have any information about this crime, please contact CVVCGTF member Deputy J. Chavez at (760) 836-1600. If you have non-emergency information regarding gang activity, please use our online Gang Task Force Tip Form or call 951-922-7601.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # GE232150001

Details:

On Thursday, August 3, 2023, at 9:00 A.M. the Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force, with the assistance of California Highway Patrol K-9 Team and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Aviation, served a search warrant at a residence located in the 45000 block of Bradley Way in the city of Indio. During the service of the search warrant Gang Task Force Officers located a non-serialized short-barreled AR-15 rifle, and a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun with full-automatic switch. Gang Task Force Officers arrested documented criminal street gang member and convicted felon, David Bustos, 24-year-old of Indio for Felon in Possession of a Firearm, Felon in Possession of Ammunition, Possession of a Short Barreled Rifle, Possession of a Machine Gun, and Possession of an Unregistered Handgun. Also arrested was Kaztynnee Zamorez, 20-year-old of Indio for Possession of a Short Barreled Rifle, Possession of a Machine Gun, and Possession of an Unregistered Handgun. Both subjects were booked at John Benoit Detention Center in Indio.

The Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Task Force is committed to creating safe and secure neighborhoods free of violent crime and gang activity. If you have any information about this crime, please contact CVVCGTF member Officer Coddington at (760) 836-1600. If you have non-emergency information regarding gang activity, please use our online Gang Task Force Tip Form or call 951-922-7601.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # Y231160025

Details:

On April 26, 2023, at 2:14 PM, the Thermal Station Special Investigations Unit (SIU) was conducting a surveillance operation in the city of Coachella reference recent criminal activity. During the operation, a black Nissan Sentra caught the attention of the surveillance units.

The Coachella Community Action Team (CCAT) located the vehicle on Avenue 52 and Genoa Street, in the city of Coachella. A traffic enforcement stop was attempted due to a vehicle code violation. The vehicle failed to yield and continued at a high rate of speed. A vehicle pursuit ensued, which continued through the city of Coachella and into the city of Indio.

The suspect vehicle caused a minor traffic collision at the intersection Monroe Street and Avenue 48, in the city of Indio. No injuries were reported, and the suspect vehicle continue to evade pursuing units.

The vehicle briefly stopped in the 82100 block of Dr. Carreon Boulevard, in the city of Indio, and two occupants fled into an apartment complex. The suspect vehicle continued through the city of Indio until it yielded at the intersection of Highway 111 and Indio Boulevard, in the city of Indio. The driver, a 17-year-old juvenile of Coachella was taken into custody without incident. The passenger of the vehicle, a 14-year-old juvenile of Coachella was taken into custody without incident. 

Meanwhile, a perimeter was established in the 82100 block of Dr. Carreon Boulevard to apprehend the outstanding suspects with the assistance of the Indio Police Department. During a search of the area, the suspects that fled from the vehicle were located hiding in another vehicle. They were taken into custody without incident and identified as 17-year-old and 14-year-old juveniles of Coachella. 

Search warrants were served on the involved vehicles, and multiple firearms were located. 

The driver was booked at the Indio Juvenile Hall in the city of Indio, for felony evading, hit and run traffic collision, minor in possession of a loaded firearm, and minor in possession of ammunition. 

The passengers were booked at the Juvenile Hall in the city of Indio, for resisting arrest, minor in possession of a loaded firearm, and minor in possession of ammunition.

The Thermal Station Investigations Special Investigations Unit is asking anyone with additional information to contact Corporal McTigue at the Thermal Sheriff’s Station by calling (760) 863-8107, or Deputy Molina with the Coachella Community Action Team at the Thermal Sheriff’s Station by calling (760) 863-8887. If you wish to remain anonymous, call Valley Crimestoppers at (760) 341-7867. 

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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The prosecution in the case of a fatal New Mexico film-set shooting made a stark turnaround Monday, dropping the possibility of a mandatory five-year sentence against Alec Baldwin, new court filings show.

The actor-producer’s attorneys had earlier objected to the enhancement, saying it was unconstitutional because it was added after the October 2021 shooting. Legal experts had said Baldwin had a strong chance of seeing it tossed out.

“The prosecutors committed a basic legal error by charging Mr. Baldwin under a version of the firearm-enhancement statue that did not exist on the date of the accident,” Baldwin’s attorneys said in an earlier court filing.

Baldwin’s attorney declined to comment Monday after the reversal by prosecutors, who earlier criticized his efforts to have the sentencing requirement dropped. The related standard for the possibility of a mandatory five years would be reckless disregard of safety “without due caution and circumspection” and carried a higher threshold of wrongdoing.

The remaining alternative standard and set of penalties in the case now requires proof of negligence, which is punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine under New Mexico law.

Heather Brewer, spokesperson for the New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney’s Office, said in an email earlier this month that the prosecution’s focus “will remain on ensuring that justice is served and that everyone — even celebrities with fancy attorneys — is held accountable under the law.”

Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the weapons supervisor on the set of the film “Rust,” were charged last month with felony involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died shortly after being wounded during rehearsals at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe.

Authorities said Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.

Hutchins’ parents and sister have filed a lawsuit over the shooting after a similar suit filed by her husband and son was settled.

Production that was halted by the shooting is expected to resume this spring. Rust Movie Productions said Hutchins’ widower, Matthew Hutchins, will be the film’s new executive producer with Blanca Cline as the new cinematographer.

Rust Movie Productions said last week a related documentary will detail the completion of the film and the life of Halyna Hutchins.

Souza will return as director when production resumes, although it’s unclear in what state the filming will take place.

Rust Movie Productions officials said the use of “working weapons” and “any form of ammunition” will be prohibited on the movie set.

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